Wing (Heavy) out of Pease AFB, New Hampshire, comes off and lands 4,000 feet up on Sugarloaf Mountain in Kingfield, Maine. 22 July Walter "Taffy" Holden, an engineer in command of No. 33 Maintenance Unit RAF with limited experience flying small single-engine trainer aircraft, inadvertently engages the afterburner of a mach 2.0 capable English Electric Lightning during ground testing. Unable to disengage the afterburner, Holden runs down the runway narrowly missing a crossing fuel truck and a de Havilland Comet taking off, before taking off himself. Flying without a helmet or canopy, the ejection seat and landing gear disabled, Holden aborts a couple of attempted landings. He lands on his third approach, striking the runway with the aircraft's tail as he adopts in his flare the attitude of a taildragger aircraft. The aircraft was subsequently returned to service, and was later acquired by the Imperial War Museum Duxford. 30 July Lockheed A-12, 60–6941, Article 135, modified as an M-21, D-21 drone carrier for Project Tagboard, is lost during the fourth test over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California when the D-21 drone, 504, suffers asymmetrical unstart as it passes through bow wake of the mothership during launch at Mach 3.25, strikes the Blackbird, destroying right rudder, engine nacelle and most of the outer wing during separation. Lockheed employees, pilot Bill Park and launch control officer Ray Torick, both successfully eject, but Torick tragically drowns in a feet-wet landing. Skunk Works head Clarence "Kelly" Johnson subsequently scrubs M-21 launch program, saying "I will not risk any more test pilots or Blackbirds. I don't have either to spare." D-21s are modified to D-21B standard for air launch from underwing pylons of a pair of mission-adapted Boeing B-52H Stratofortress bombers. 8 August First prototype of U.S. Navy Bell X-22, 1520, P-1, suffers a forced landing four miles from Niagara Falls Airport, New York, during its 15th flight, with only 3.2 hours of flight time, due to failure of a propeller control, described by the test pilot, Stanley Kakol, as the only non-redundant component in the power chain. Two crew survive. Airframe stripped of components to make second prototype flight capable and fuselage used as a simulator for some time before being scrapped. 22 August Second (of five) Ling-Temco-Vought XC-142As, 62-5922, returned to flight status on 23 July 1966 after wing replacement, is delivered to the U.S. Air Force at Edwards Air